Shareholder unrest aside, publisher Take-Two Interactive today reported its first-quarter fiscal results for the period ended January 31, 2008. Net revenue came to $240.4 million, compared to $277.3 million for the same period last year, while net loss rose from $21.5 million to $38 million.

The company said it was a tough comparison to the first quarter of fiscal 2007 when there were more holiday releases. Sales in Q1 were driven by BioShock, Carnival Games, NBA 2K8, Grand Theft Auto catalog titles, and the release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories in Japan. Take-Two also said that its distribution revenue rose year-over-year, thanks in part to "the strength of next generation software and hardware sales, including robust demand for Wii products."

News that will come as little shock (pun not intended) and that will certainly please many gamers is that Take-Two confirmed BioShock 2 is in development for a fall 2009 release. The new 2K Marin studio will be handling the game, but in a conference call, Take-Two confirmed that Ken Levine will still be involved. That said, Levine and 2K Boston/Australia are also working on their own as yet unannounced game. The first BioShock has now sold over two million units.

Other highlights for the company included shipping over one million copies of Carnival Games on Wii (2K Play is also bringing the game to Nintendo DS this summer) and acquiring Mafia developer llusion Softworks, which we reported previously. Renamed 2K Czech, the studio is now creating Mafia II for next-gen consoles and Games for Windows.

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, commented, "We are pleased with Take-Two's stronger than expected top and bottom line results for the first quarter. Our performance benefited from a diverse range of hit titles in the first quarter, and we are eagerly awaiting the release of Grand Theft Auto IV in the second quarter. We believe that our extraordinary creative assets and improving operational efficiency will be sources of significant value for shareholders as the interactive entertainment industry moves further into the current growth cycle."

Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two, added, "We're excited about our robust product lineup, most of which is based on internally-owned and developed IP. With one of the strongest release schedules in the industry, Take-Two is clearly well positioned for the future. In addition to Grand Theft Auto IV, for the balance of fiscal 2008 our releases will include Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, Top Spin 3, Don King Presents: Prizefighter, Carnival Games for DS, Carnival Games: Mini-Golf for Wii, NBA 2K9, NHL 2K9, episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360, as well as other titles. We also have significant visibility into fiscal 2009, which includes additional episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV, Mafia II, Borderlands, BioShock 2, our complete sports lineup, additional Nick Jr. titles under our agreement with Nickelodeon, and several new brands."

Borderlands, alluded to by Feder above, had been scheduled originally for release during fiscal 2008 (which ends October 31), but Take-Two said it needed to push the Gearbox-developed title back "in order to allow additional development time for this highly anticipated game and provide a better balance in the release of Take-Two's triple-A titles." Midnight Club: Los Angeles, in development at Rockstar San Diego, was also moved from its previous launch date of "early 2008" to Take-Two's Q4 (the August-October period of this year).

Looking ahead, Take-Two said it's raising its guidance for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2008. For the second quarter ending April 30, 2008 revenue is expected to total between $450 million and $500 million, while earnings per share is expected to fall between $1.00 and $1.10. For the full year, revenue is anticipated to total between $1.25 billion and $1.4 billion and earnings per share should fall between $1.35 and $1.55.